


While You Were Sleeping

by crspnwah (walkydeads)



Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Background Relationships, F/F, F/M, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Slow Burn, Unresolved Romantic Tension, background lesbians
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-24
Updated: 2016-05-23
Packaged: 2018-06-10 08:45:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6949039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/walkydeads/pseuds/crspnwah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Enzo figures it out way back, while they're still in NXT Developmental, sharing a bedroom with Dean Ambrose of all people.</p>
<p>Colin figures it out after Payback, his heart clenching and his mind blank as he sits by his friend's hospital bed, Kevin and Dean pacing the room as they wait for Enzo to open his eyes.</p>
<p>It's so much easier to tell someone you love them when you know they can't hear you.</p>
            </blockquote>





	While You Were Sleeping

**Author's Note:**

> Just a heads up: I know for a fact that this isn't going to be accurate to actual events. Mostly because it's a story about two bros who may or may not be in love falling in love, and there's no way I could know the specifics there. But also because I didn't really get into NXT until towards the end of Enzo and Cass' run, so I just don't have firsthand knowledge of what went on.
> 
> I consulted Wikipedia and YouTube where I could. Hopefully the inaccuracies don't bother you too much. Just know that I tried, and I hope that'll be enough to make it readable.
> 
> Depending on how this is received, I'm planning anywhere from 2 to 4 chapters bouncing back and forth from Enzo to Cass' perspectives. If nobody digs it, I'll probably just fulfill this to my own satisfaction as opposed to trying to craft a full story out of it. So please let me know if you enjoyed it!

Enzo figured out that they knew each other on the first day of training. Dusty had put them together for some simple exercises and mentioned they were from the same part of New York, before disappearing to help the other new recruits. He didn't even tell them each other's names. Enzo was about to ask when he finally sized the guy up and realized he knew him from somewhere, which was no small feat coming from a city of six million people.

He narrowed his eyes for a moment before it came to him. Bill had always been tall, even back then. Tilting his head to one side, he asked, "Hey, man. Did you used to play at West Fourth Street? Back in high school, maybe?"

Bill's eyes lit up in recognition, "Eric?"

A moment of nostalgia passed between the two of them before they both gave a bark of surprised laughter, dissolving into giggles until Dusty glares them back into silence. While they work on situps, leg lifts, and other super simple stuff together, Enzo can't help but reminisce a little.

They had killed at two on two games their respective sophomore years of high school. Especially that summer. It had born a friendship between the two of them that was short lived as they lived in vastly different neighborhoods and went to different schools. They had even been MySpace friends for a while until that whole trend lost popularity, and then they just kind of drifted apart, as casual friends do. 

Enzo was good with names, but he was surprised this guy even remembered his, even if it was technically the wrong one now. Bill had been really popular because of his height, as well as his genuine kindness and enthusiasm. Eric, on the other hand, was known for being scrappy and picking fights on occasion. 

"It's Enzo Amore now," he said, ducking his head and turning a little red despite himself.

"I see," Bill said, barely concealing his amusement, "These days people call me Colin Cassady."

They were pretty much untouchable and inseperable from then on. Developmental didn't even try to take them apart for anything. Somehow everybody knew - just like when they were kids - that they were best as a team.

-

The apartments developmental had shoved them into for the duration of training weren't so bad. But it was post-Payback signing season, so they were a bit overcrowded. Their three bedroom apartment housed themselves, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, a couple of guys that didn't make it to the end of the first month, Baron Corbin - at least for a while, until he broke the only toilet in the apartment somehow, got into a fistfight with Owens and got moved a building over - and Dean Ambrose. 

Dean wasn't a bad guy. True to his character, he seemed a little... Off at times, but he was nice enough, respected personal space, and could cook a mean frozen pizza.

But sharing a room with him and Colin was a little bit of a disappointment for Enzo. Technically he could move into Kevin or Sami's rooms (they were good friends but they could NOT cohabitate without property damage and sore feelings), but he was really hoping Dean would be the one to do that because everyone knew he was the odd man out in this situation. Colin seemed oblivious, like the 'I'm just happy to be here' kind of guy, but weird as it was, Enzo wanted Cass to himself.

However, Dean seemed to be perfectly content to sleep on the top bunk of Enzo's bed, to duck down and yell at him like the building was on fire whenever he slept through his alarm, and loudly discuss Jack Black's filmography with them well into the wee hours of the morning.

It could be worse, Enzo supposed.

Besides, some nights they got lucky. Some nights they would get home and Dean wouldn't be there, or he'd be unconscious and they'd get to just hang out like they used to. Talk and laugh and watch stupid YouTube videos.

One such evening found Enzo wide awake long after everyone else in the apartment had dozed off. Despite Dean snoring loudly above him and Colin snoring loudly to his right, he was buzzing with a sort of warmth and contentment that he hadn't felt in a long time.

It dawned on him in an almost anticlimactic way. His breath hitched in his throat and he turned his head to look at Colin who was sleeping facing him, hair ungracefully splayed across his face, mouth wide open with a bit of drool dripping down onto his pillowcase, every snore making his whole body undulate.

I love you, he thought. 

And really, he had probably loved him ever since they were fifteen, ever since Bill Morrissey lifted Eric Arndt over his shoulders for scoring the winning basket playing hoops in Manhattan. It didn't actually matter then, and it didn't matter now, not in the big scheme of things. But it made sense. It gave Enzo somewhere to stow that confusing array of emotions that scratched at his chest begging to be let out every time he looked at his best friend.

He loved him.

He wanted to hold him, kiss him, spend the rest of his life by his side, but the former two and the latter one didn't seem like they went together. Cass cared about him, sure, but he didn't seem exactly interested in that way. It'd be best to keep this little revelation to himself, Enzo decided.

Still, he couldn't resist saying it just once before trying to force it to the back of his mind forever. It was soft, almost reverent as he said it, so quick he scarcely believed he'd actually done it.

"Iloveyou," he said, and shuddered. Colin Cassady slept on while Enzo Amore vowed to never repeat that.

Above him, Dean snorted, mumbled something like 'fucking finally, Christ' before rolling over and dissolving into snores once more.

Enzo let the sound pull him into an uneasy rest.


End file.
